Limbo
by wildkat
Summary: During the World Battle Grand Prix, Speed and Trixie becomes the victims of someone's twisted revenge. While Speed's stuck in Limbo, an old aquaintence is out to repay both Speed and Trixie. Can Speed escape from Limbo in time to save Trixie or will Rac
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own Speed Racer or any of its characters.  
  
First time Speed Racer fic. be gentle.  
  
Chapter One  
  
The day was bright and clear with a nice temperature. Today felt like the   
  
perfect day to race. This was no regular race, but the World Battle Grand   
  
Prix. This is the second shot for Speed Racer. The first time he had been   
  
cheated out of winning.  
  
"Hey Speed!" Trixie yelled out, as he hopped out of the Mach 5 after a   
  
practice run.  
  
"Yeah, Trixie?" Speed replied softly and smiled, "What can I do for you?"  
  
'Keep smiling!' Trixie thought to herself.  
  
"Pops wants you for something! He sounded really serious."  
  
Speed smacked his forehead in exasperation.  
  
"He's gonna give me one of his speeches that's supposed to loosen me up, but all it does it make me even more nervous!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
After coming back from listening to Pops, Speed knew that it would make him even more neverous had been the understatement of the year. Pops's speech had turned Speed into a walking train wreck.  
  
"Relax!" Trixie called as Speed walked by her.  
  
"Easy for you to say!" he yelled back, "Pops was a nightmare!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Welcome Race Fans!" the Public Address system boomed out, "Today's racers are going for the title of Battle Grand Prix Champion. But they must defeat the current Champ! We couldn't have asked for a better weather on this beautiful racing day! The cars are at the starting mark, so let's get this party started already!"  
  
Speed watched the light as it clicked down to the green. His foot was hovering just over the gas pedal.  
  
'3...2...1...GO!'  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
The light went green and everyone exploded past the starting line. As the cars came on the big screen back at the stadium, the Mach 5 was in front. Trixie was up above, spotting for the team, in a helicopter. As the race went on, Trixie couldn't shake the bad feeling in her. It was like having ice-cold water just sitting in her stomach.  
  
"TRIX!" Speed's slighly panicked yell came over the line.  
  
Trixie snapped out of her daze and answered him.  
  
"Don't scare me like that!" Speed admonished.  
  
"Whatever!" Trixie replied and rolled her eyes, "System's still go?"  
  
"Y-" Speed suddenly cut off in his response, "Make that a no-WHOA!!!"  
  
The Mach 5 went straight off a cliff-side curve and exploded in midair.  
  
"NO!!! SPEED!!!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
A few minutes before...  
  
Speed was trying to be totally focused on the race, but something in the back of his mind was bothering him. Maybe it was just that damn, relentless, ticking noise. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with the Mach 5, all systems were still green.  
  
'Jeez, that damn ticking noise is really starting to annoy me!'  
  
Suddenly he realized that he hadn't heard from Trixie since the race started. He called her once with no answer and then began to panic slightly.  
  
"Hey Trix, you there?"  
  
No answer again. Okay, forget slight panic, make that total panic.  
  
"TRIX!"  
  
"What is it, Speed?"  
  
"Don't scare me like that!" he admonished, trying to get his heart rate to come back down.  
  
"Whatever!" Trixie replied, "System's still go?"  
  
"Y-" Speed started to say and then stopped as he realized that the Mach 5 wasn't responding to his commands and he was headed for the cliff edge, "Make that a no-WHOA!!!"  
  
Speed's sentence turned into a scream, as the Mach 5 went straight off the cliff-side curve and then exploded in midair.  
  
"NO!!! SPEED!!!" was all he heard before darkness enveloped his mind. 


	2. Explanations

Disclaimer: I don't own Speed Racer or any of its characters.  
  
Chapter Two  
  
Speed layed, unconscious, on a tropical beach somewhere. He felt surf hitting his bare feet and it woke him up. He realized that not only was he alive and not in the race, but there wasn't a single scratch on him. It was as if he had never had the accident.  
  
He looked around at the tropical paradise that surrounded him. It seemed to be right out of a ship-wreck story. Perfect white sand beach, untouched land, and there seemed to be absolutely no civilization. It was if he was the only person on the island. He had a feeling that somewhere along the perfect beach, just a couple steps into the mainland, there would be a house built out of trees and palm leaves.  
  
Suddenly a figure appeared in the distance, walking toward Speed. He stopped within a few feet of the young man. The stranger was wearing worn bluejeans, a white button-up t-shirt, which was not buttoned up at all, that fluttered around him in the breeze, and he was also not wearing shoes. It took Speed a total of two seconds to realize that he was face to face with Rex Racer, his missing, reportedly dead, brother.  
  
"So I did die," Speed stated softly more to himself than to his brother, "Are you a ghost or is this Heaven?"  
  
"No you didn't die, I'm not a ghost and this isn't Heaven," Rex replied explaining, as he tried to assure his little brother, "All this is what we call limbo, Speed. It's the place you come to when you're in a coma. You are between life and death right now."  
  
"What about you, Rex?" Speed replied, "Are you in a coma?"  
  
"Nope," Rex replied, "I'm asleep. I was called here so you could have a familiar face explain this place to you. I was here for about a month after the accident that supposedly took my life."  
  
"What happened that day?"  
  
"That is something not even I can explain," Rex replied with a sigh, "You see, I have no memory between that morning, before we even went to the track, and waking up four weeks later."  
  
"So I'm in a coma?" Speed stated, "What happened?"  
  
"Someone sabotaged the Mach 5 right before the race started and they also hid a bomb in it that couldn't be detected by anyone or anything. No one knows where your body is at," Rex replied softly, "After the explosion, the pieces of the Mach 5 scattered all over the area below the cliff. No one's sure what happened to your body, but no one knows that you are alive."  
  
"Everyone, besides you, thinks I'm dead?" Speed stated, hurt in his voice.  
  
"I'm afraid so," Rex replied, "Except for two people."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Trixie-she refuses to believe that you are dead, but everyone just thinks she's in denile-and Racer X."  
  
"You're Racer X aren't you?"  
  
Rex didn't say whether he was or wasn't Racer X, but he did smile at Speed. All this information seemed to overload Speed's mind. He needed to sit down, he wanted to sit down, but not on the sand. Suddenly Speed fell backwards and ended up setting down on a fallen tree that was now on the beach.  
  
"What the-"  
  
"It'll adjust small things like that to your need, but there are high limits to being in limbo."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"There'e no set time limit on how long you stay, but if you stay too long, then you can't leave until Death comes for you. Also, you can call anyone you want from here, but they must be alseep at the time and you cannot call anyone who doesn't have a bit of your blood in their veins."  
  
"Which means I can't call Trixie here..." Speed stated with a deeply hurt look on his face.  
  
Rex noted the look on Speed's face and realized that he had no idea that Speed and Trixie had a thing going on between them. In fact, Rex had missed out on al lot of important things in his little brother's life. Heck, he hadn't even had known that he had another little brother, Sprittle, until he heard the ten-year-old call Speed his brother.  
  
"How do I get out of this mess?"  
  
"What?" Rex asked, shaking out of his stupor.  
  
"I said 'How do I get out of this mess?"  
  
"That I don't know."  
  
Rex began to fade out, causing Speed to jump to his feet.  
  
"What's wrong with you?"  
  
"I'm waking up," Rex replied, as he faded out, "Until the next time we can talk, brother."  
  
Rex faded away completely, leaving Speed all alone on his personal, prison, island paradise. 


	3. Found

Disclaimer: I don't own Speed Racer or any of its characters.  
  
Chapter Three  
  
In the living world...  
  
"Come on, Trixie, you have to eat something," Mom Racer beseeched the young woman who lay on Speed's bed.  
  
"I don't want to."  
  
"Come on-"  
  
"MOM! MOM!"  
  
"What is it Sprittle?" Mom asked her remaining son, exhasperated, as he came screaming-literally-into the room.  
  
Sprittle ran up to Speed's TV and turned it on.  
  
"What are you doing?!" Trixie asked him with a hard edge in her voice.  
  
"Where's channel 32?" Sprittle asked out, ignoring the anger in Trixie's voice, "3...11...21...ah, here we are!"  
  
"And in a late-breaking story...Today the World Grand Prix came to a stand still as the great Champion Racer-no pun intended-Speed Racer was brutely murdered in cold blood."  
  
At this reminder of Speed's departure from the world of the living, Trixie burst into fresh tears. Mom got up to turn the TV off, but Sprittle moved in her way.  
  
"The rescue workers searched the woods below the cliff, with little hope of finding the young Racer alive. After an exhausting seventeen hour search of the area, the rescue workers called off the search after, what Channel 32 has come upon as iron clad fact, the rescue workers have found what appears to be the charred remains of Speed Racer's racing uniform jacket. Also what appears to be a, completely untouched, ring on a chain was found in the lining of the jacket neck. Now we go live to the woods where-"  
  
"That's my ring! I lended it to Speed for luck!" Trixie choked out, drowing out what the man said next, "He would never take it off!"  
  
Just then the phone decided to ring. Pops, who was nearest to one, answered it. After hanging up, he calmly walked into Speed's bedroom.  
  
"Who was it dear?" Mom asked, "Was it another reporter?"  
  
"No, no dear, nothing like that. Just some hospital."  
  
"Hospital?" Trixie repeated, "What Hospital?"  
  
"The local hospital and with news that Speed's been found..." Pops stopped and looked at all of them before breaking into a grin, "Alive!"  
  
"Alive?" Trixie repeated with tears of joy running down her cheeks.  
  
"Yes, alive!" Pops yelled, repeating himself.  
  
"Can we go see him?!" Sprittle asked, excitedly.  
  
"We can't go see him yet, but we can go to the hospital and wait until he is out of Emergency Surgery."  
  
And with that, the three members of the Racer family, Trixie, and Sparky climbed into a car and drove off to the hospital. En route, Trixie dialed a phone number on her cell phone. It rung once, then twice, and a third time. Trixie was about to hang up, when a half-asleep voice came onto the phone.  
  
~~~~~~~~  
  
*Ring Ring!*  
  
With a groan, a hand shot out from under a heavy comforter and groped for the on switch for a lamp on the bedside table. Finally finding it, the light clicked out, revealing a digital clock that read 12:05, Midnight. A male figure got out of the bed, wearing only a pair of boxers.  
  
*Ring Ring!*  
  
"I'm coming-dammit-I'm coming!" he yelled out in anger, as he stumbled out of the bedroom, banging his shin on a low chair in the process.  
  
*Ring Ring!*  
  
Just as it finished ringing for the third time, his hand closed around the phone, pulled it off the reciever, and put it to his ear.  
  
"Hello?" he half-stated, half-asked, still very much asleep.  
  
"Racer X?"  
  
It woke him up, but only about half-way.  
  
"Who is this?"  
  
"It's Trixie."  
  
"Oh, hi Trixie," he replied dully and then yawned, "What do you want? It's like Midnight or something close to it."  
  
"The Hospital just called! They found him!"  
  
"Found who?"  
  
"Speed, silly," Trixie replied as if he should have known just who she was talking about, "They found him alive and we're heading over to wait until he's out of Emergercy Surgery."  
  
Okay, now he was totally awake.  
  
"I'll be over there as soon as I can, which is right after I hang up and get dressed! Bye!" he replied and hastily hung up the phone before running back into his room to get dressed.  
  
'So it really wasn't a dream. Speed is alive and in a coma. Hope he can leave limbo before it's too late.' 


	4. Memory

Disclaimer: I don't own Speed Racer or any of its characters.  
  
I finally noticed that my summary is cut off, so here's the whole thing.  
  
Summary: During the World Battle Grand Prix, Speed and Trixie become the victims of someone's twisted revenge. While Speed's stuck in Limbo, an old aquaintence is out to repay both Speed and Trixie. Can Speed escape from Limbo in time to save Trixie or will Racer X have to come to the rescue?  
  
Rate's up to PG-13 (Mention of adult topics, violence, cursing, etc.)  
  
Chapter Four  
  
In Limbo...  
  
Speed sighed as he sat back down on the same log that he'd fallen onto when talking to Rex. Now he wished that Rex was here with him. He needed someone to talk to badly. He guessed that he had only been here a couple hours, but there was no way of telling time. He had no watch and it seemed that the sun never set in the place.  
  
He'd been up and down the beach, explored the edge of the main land, and had climbed the only mountain on the island to see what all there was besides his tiny, island, prison. What he saw suprised him, but at the same time didn't. If he really was in Purgatory, then Rex's ghost, or whatever it was, had lied to him; he had to be dead.  
  
The ocean extended quite a ways out from the small island. Then the ground dropped off at a sharp 90 degree angle. The water went over the edge of the land in large, roaring, waterfalls broken into smaller waterfalls by huge, jagged, pieces of rock that dotted the edge of the land in regular intervals. The strange thing was that no matter how much water roared over the side, the ocean never got any smaller.  
  
All around the island, beyond the waterfalls and the edge that ran all around the island, was darkness. Pure darkness that reminded him of a black hole, a collapsed star so dense that not even light could escape from it. As he sat there, thinking about who would want him dead, a memory came to the surface of his mind. A memory that was buried deep within the back of Speed's mind, one that he had wanted to forget.  
  
/Flashback/  
  
Speed was walking home from school and hadn't even gotten maybe a block from the parking lot of the High School, when...  
  
"Hey, Speed!" a female voice called out behind him.  
  
Speed turned around at the voice and softly smiled, as one of his best friends ran up to him.  
  
"What's up, Chris?"  
  
"There's something wrong with Trix," Chris replied, as she caught her breath, "She won't tell me, but she keeps muttering your name over and over again between choked sobs."  
  
Trix was a general nickname for Trixie and she was known to not cry over anything unless it was really upsetting. As Speed heard Chris tell him this, a feeling of dread swept over him, instantly erasing his smile. Speed knew something was really, really, wrong.  
  
"Lead me to her," he commanded Chris with nothing but concern for Trixie's well-being in his thoughts.   
  
Chris turned back around and broke into a run. Speed followed her for a while before they stopped between an unfamiliar, blue, SUV and a familiar, green, Ford Taurus-Trixie's own car. Sitting against her car, with her knees drawn up to her chest, was Trixie. Her chin was resting on her knees and tears were cascading down her cheeks.  
  
Her head came up when she heard them approach. When she caught sight of Speed, her eyes teared up again. Speed immediately dropped to his knees beside her. Concern for her flashed in his blue eyes. He was really worried, as he had never seen Trixie so upset.  
  
"What's wrong, Trix?" Speed asked softly.  
  
He then caught sight of the large, nasty, bruise forming on one side of Trixie's face. Plus the fact that she was holding her ripped shirt together in the front, trying to perserve a little of what was left of her modesty.  
  
"Oh God!" he groaned out, "Don't tell me Steve actually-"  
  
Trixie's eyes widened in fear, and she whimpered, at Steven's name. She quickly nodded, not letting Speed finish. Steven Vens (don't own last name) was Trixie's boyfriend. Everyone, in or out of school, knew that Steven was meaner than a snake. Everyone had tried to warn Trixie, but she just wouldn't listen to them; she was too blinded by her love for Steven.  
  
Steven knew that Speed had a major crush on Trixie. So just to get Speed riled, he treated Trixie like a queen when Speed was around. That didn't matter to Speed-it was what he did to Trixie behind closed doors that had Speed concerned. Alicia Verrs, a really good friend of Chris's was Steve's latest ex.  
  
Steven and Alicia had broken up about a month ago. Alicia was just now getting back the full use of her left arm and right eye. Steve had beaten her almost to death when she wouldn't 'put out' for him. Speed had been about ready to beat Steven to within an inch of his worthless life. the only thing that had saved the scum's life was Alicia telling Speed that Steven wasn't worth it.  
  
Speed looked at Trixie's huddled form and then into her eyes. As soon as he did, his heart froze and then fell down into his shoes. Carefully, and slowly, as not to scare Trixie, Speed pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number for the local police station.  
  
When a dispatcher picked up, Speed slowly stood up, walked about two paces from Trixie, and slowly spoke to the person. He was clearly scared, but he was trying to stay calm. He managed to talk in clear, quiet, tones for a little while before hanging up. He then dialed another number, this time for the local Hopital to get an ambulance.  
  
By the time both a Squad Car and the Ambluance had arrived Chris had managed to get Trixie to awknowledge her presence. Speed stood a little ways away from the two of them, knowing that if his judgement was correct, Trixie would not trust anyone male for a long time. That was true, as when the paramedics, one male and one female, tried to get near, Trixie would go into histerics at the sight of the male one.  
  
Thank God, someone in the police force had enough sense to dispatch a female Police Officer. With Chris, the female police officer, and the female paramedic helping Trixie, she was taken to the hospital, where Speed's worst fear was confirmed. Steve hadn't just beaten Trixie, he had beaten her while he raped her.  
  
Speed felt sick and wanted to find Steve and rip the little asshole into a million pieces. Fortunately for the both of them, the police got to Steve first and after a shoot-out he was arrested. Trixie was shaken up badly, but she managed to give her testimony in court. Due to a plea bargain Steven got off with only a sentence of spending the next five years (I have no real idea how long a sentencing like that is for) behind bars.  
  
/End of Flashback/  
  
As the memory faded away, the realization hit Speed like a lead ball in the stomach. Today, if was still the day of the World Battle Grand Prix, marked the fifth year to the day that Steve Vens was put behind bars. Today he had been released and Speed remembered, from Steve's trial, that Steve had vowed to pay Speed back.  
  
Steve was the one who had done this to Speed. He messed up the Mach 5, he planted the bomb, and he put Speed in this coma. Now he was out there, free, with Trixie, while Speed was stuck here in limbo. Screw life, he just wanted to kill the little jerk before he got to Trixie again.  
  
And now that he thought about it, the rocks, the island, all of the limbo-it all was made up like a giant clock. The rocks marked the hours and the island was the center where the hands were moved. Now Speed knew for sure that his only way out of here was to wake up. The problem was that his clock was ticking down and he didn't know where the hands were now pointed to. 


End file.
